The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-12-25
TRYING TO BEAT GOULD.
What Happened When a Party of Spectators
Tried O Scare the Lite Man.

4
Tried to Scare the Lite Man.
| "Gath's" New York Letter.
My friend said: ''Some day when you have
| time will tell you the story about the restitu-
ton which Jay Gould made to the Erie railroad. "
There is no time like the present.
ut belongs 20 that class of operations where
other persons undertook to beat Gould and got
beat themselves. Aaer Jay Gould left the Erie
railroad he went into operation with Horace
Clark. the son-inlaw of Vanderbilt, and Mr..
Vanderbilts chum, Mr. Banker, to corner
Northwestern stock. The other parties who re-
sisted the movement were Henry Smith, whom
Gould knocked all to pieces at that time; S. l..
NJ Barlow, the lawyer; Watson, the president
OF the Erie railroad, and Bill Travers. They
were short of Northwest and found themselves
caught in this corner, and they hit upon this
scheme to extricate themselves, and used me to
some extent for their purposes. as / was a factor
IN the railroad. They arranged to bring Grim
nal suit against Gould for the difference be-
tween the par value of some of the securities
and the amount they were turned in at. A huge
paper Immediately prepared, and Gould
was arrested, ard Charles OConor. VINO was
the lawyer for the Short crowd, said that he
thought there was slip in the bill. and that
all now necessary was to take Gould before
some judge who would hold him under sufi-
GENTLY great bail to lock him up. The amount
of bail they fixed at Sc. 900, 900. Their reason
ing was that the job would brighten Gould out
of his corner, and that he would como down to
them. But Gould never showed his GOODNESS
better than he did at that time He gave
Charley Osborne. at the moment they were car
ryIng out their operation at law, an order to
Keep on buying Northwestern stock, and he put
1t away up above ZOO They were all mashed to
pieces. and they all got their knees to him.
Said he: Gentlemen, l don't know ANYTHING
about this Northwestern corner. 1 am willing
however, to deal with you we'll asyou deserve.if
you will make a settlement with me for certain
assets of the Erie railroad, and / also want con-
troll of the Erie stock for while on the market
At that time old Watson, the president, who
had been brought in there a reformer was
involved to to the extent of $500, 900 in this
speculation. Gould let up on one or two of the
in fha pD,1 I'D hA
they made that settlement. OLD President
Watson came to the auditor of the railroad a
ties, such as the Lopgwood Coal Company and
$3.50 Construction Company. stuff not of any
value He said that he wanted this collateral
taken out of the safe and counted. The auditor
was the only person who had the combination
of the safe. The stuff was taken out and count
ed over that Sunday morning. and that was the
restitution Mr.. Gould made. These fellows who
had been the custodiaas of the reform move
ment In that property let the settlement be
made"
Did Gould make any money in the North
west transaction at that timer
He made old Drew lose 81 900. 900, which was
the commencement of his downfall. But he
made his money mainly by manipulating the
Erie stock, which went up several per cent. on
the information that it had recovered from Mr. ,
Gould this S9000.000 to SIS 600, 900 of restitu-
ton. have Just told you what the restitution
was. The fact was that Gould did owe tho
Erie railroad anything at that time. and he said
to those men when they wanted him to let up
thing with me concerns the Erie railroad:
don't owe it anything But 1 want that old
collateral of mine put into the settlement and
the road to bear it's burdens Corners in
stock never make any money, hardly ever.
The only execution / know of was in the case of
Commodore Vanderbilt cornering the Harlem
stock and doubling it You that it takes SO
much money to control a stock that the holdings
of those you mean TO squeeze are comparatively
small compared TO the aggregate stock. In that
operation Gould had not expected that the stock
of Mrs. Keep in the Northwestern Company
would be sold, but Roswell Flower sold it. and
there about 81 o0O 900 of it thrown at Gould
suddenly. The feet that he extricated himself
at ali was due to his GOODNESS and Judgment